Are they really learning? How educational are educational games?

Dr. AnnMaria De Mars, Dr. Yolanda Venegas, and Marisol Castillo got together to investigate whether popular games are actually helping children to learn and boost scholastic achievement, as well as what it is about these games that makes them either effective or ineffective.

To start, they asked a few important questions:

1) What makes something a game?
2) What makes that game educational?
3) How does one select the right game for a particular student?

These are the central issues that anchored their research, as well as the two objectives of educational games: that students should enjoy playing the game AND actually learn something.

These questions regarding what constitutes effective instruction and gaming are what drive our work at 7 Generation Games every day.

The answers? Ah, for that, you need to read my next post, which in celebration of the 4th of July holiday tomorrow will also be up today.